IML Diary: November 2003

November 5th to 11th - Los Angeles and Palm Springs

Photo credit: Dr Larry Wednesday November 5th - Flew to Los Angeles to spend two days with Dr Larry, President of the AVATAR club. Thursday November 6th - Toured the sights during the day. If you look carefully you can just see the Hollywood sign on the hill behind me! Had fun at the Faultline bar in the evening.

Photo credit: Papa Tony Friday November 7th - Drove to Palm Springs for their Leather Pride weekend. In the evening we attended a formal leather dinner at the Cedar Creek Inn, followed by a beer bust at the Toolshed bar. During the beer bust the 4 contestants and 6 judges were introduced to the crowd by emcee Jeff Tucker (IML 1994).

Photo credit: Papa Tony Saturday November 8th - Judged contestant interviews during the day while the vendor market traded outside. Gotham Piercing were part of the market - I'm sure they're following me around the circuit.

Photo credit: Papa Tony The Mr Palm Springs Leather 2004 Contest was held in the evening. Jeff Tucker was very funny, opening the show with "I've never been to Palm Springs before so I rang a friend and asked him what it was like. He told me it was the mid-90's ... and I thought he was talking about the weather!" The winner was Jack Beneville, Mr Barracks Leather, pictured above with Don Mentink (Mr Palm Springs 2003) and the other contestants.

Saturday November 8th (continued) - It's always nice to meet other titleholders, especially when they're big, beefy bears who volunteer to look after you for the weekend! This is Jeffrey Cooper, American Leatherman 2001, (the top accolade in the American Brotherhood title circuit).

Photo credit: Papa Tony Sunday November 9th - There was a pool party at the Ambiente Inn which included a wet t-shirt contest. All the sensible people stuck to the heated pool or hot tub ... except for Jeffrey and me who managed a single length of the freezing cold pool above (behind Jeff Tucker). In the evening we went to the Barracks Bar which was packed with good looking men celebrating a successful weekend. Great fun.

November 14th to 30th - Zurich and London

Photo credit: Ralf Freitag Friday November 14th - Flew to Zurich. Eventually. After missing my flight. It's a long story, but thanks to my partner Dave for sorting it out. In the evening I was taken to the Mannen Bar and the Rage Club to unwind with lots of vodka. Saturday November 15th - Rehearsals all afternoon for the Mr Fetish Switzerland Contest in the evening, also held at the Rage Club. The contest opened with a safer sex announcement intoned by a monk! (I don't think he was a real one....)

Photo credit: Ralf Freitag Saturday November 15th - This is how the Swiss run a leather contest: there were 3 contestants and between 10 and 13 judges (I lost count). All the judges were titleholders, either German Mr Leather or Bavarian Mr Leather and 2 IML's: me (IML 2003) and Stefan Mueller (IML 2001). The judges had five votes each and every member of the crowd had a single vote. And we spent an hour in rehearsals choreographing our two line introduction onstage! (above)

Photo credit: Ralf Freitag I don't speak German, which did make it difficult to follow everything that happened. Fortunately the fantasy round involved no words. This is Thomas Schoch demonstrating how not to light a barbecue.

Saturday November 15th (continued) - Thomas Schoch won and he qualifies for a place at IML 2004. The photo (above) was taken at the press conference after the contest: me with Thomas and Stefan Mueller (IML 2001). Meanwhile the rest of the club was full of horny leathermen on 3 floors, who partied until dawn.

Monday November 24th - Met up with three trustees of the Spanner Trust. It's currently illegal in the United Kingdom to make any lasting marks for your own personal pleasure - even lovebites are technically illegal! This makes it very difficult to teach safe bondage or SM techniques, or get medical attention if a scene goes wrong. The Spanner Trust are campaigning to change the law and I'm raffling my Harley Davidson motorbike to help raise money for them. The draw will take place at IML 2004 and you can enter as many times as you like. Click here for more info.

Photo credit: James Green Tuesday November 25th - Photoshoot for GMFA's online sex quiz. The idea is that you'll be able to choose your question-master from a range of types. Guess which "type" I represent!

(For a list of my other diary entries please go to FULL INDEX)